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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28137573">Rejoice and Be Happy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/humblepirate/pseuds/humblepirate'>humblepirate</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dave lives, Fluff, Hanukkah, Holidays, M/M, Mentions of PTSD, Mentions of Substance Abuse, Season 1 Spoilers, mentions of violent antisemitism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:15:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,900</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28137573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/humblepirate/pseuds/humblepirate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave lives AU! After narrowly rescuing his boyfriend from dying in 1968, Klaus wrestles with the thought of Dave finding a way to go back to the past and leaving him behind. A fireside chat soothes all his fears.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rejoice and Be Happy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one-shot is a gift for Mae (sweetprongsmydeer on Tumblr) for the TUA Secret Santa! I imagined what it would be like if Klaus had managed to rescue Dave in season one by bringing him back to 2019. After some research, I found out that Katz is a really common Ashkenazi name, and it was stated in the show that Dave's family members have fought in previous American wars, so I decided to explore what it might be like for a Jewish family coping with the antisemitism and xenophobia in the US during WWII. </p><p>Please note that there is a brief discussion of antisemitic violence. If any additional tags are needed, please do not hesitate to let me know!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Klaus hates hospitals. The smell of antiseptic makes him gag, the harsh fluorescent lights give him a headache, and everywhere the sounds of suffering. It reminds him of too many nights spent sweating and heaving as a gaggle of EMTs attempts to coax some life back into his stuttering heart. The thought makes him ill, like every time they brought him back he left a little bit of himself behind, and all he is now is a few scraps of flesh desperately clinging to bone.</p><p>He used to hate himself. He still hates himself, sometimes, but he no longer actively thinks he deserves to die. All those times he brought himself right to the brink of oblivion, only to get cruelly sucked back into the light, he wondered why. Why had he been chosen to live, when so many more deserving died? It wasn’t until Vietnam that he understood.</p><p>Whatever he was before that day could not be called living, for surely, he couldn’t have had a reason to exist before Dave entered his life. Dave breathed warmth into Klaus’s chilled bones, filed down the sharp edges of his childhood with patience and understanding, filled in the hollows between his ribs with his soul-aching brand of love. Seeing him for the first time, in a dingy army tent less than a mile from the Vietnam front, he took his very first breath, and has savored every once since.</p><p>He can’t get the sound out of his head. The rippling of machine gun fire and the scream of mortars, dirt and blood spraying in their wake, the bullet ripping through flesh- through <em> Dave’s </em> flesh, the sound of his quiet gasp that only Klaus could hear because they were pressed so close, a cruel mimicry of a lovers’ embrace.</p><p>Klaus examines his hands. They’re filthy with mud, filthy with gore, Dave’s blood caked under his nails and- oh god, please, no.</p><p>He clutches his lover’s dog tags in his hands and squeezes his eyes shut, trying his best not to think about how badly he itches to run away. He needs a goddamn smoke.</p><p>The next seven hours feel like a dream, slow and sluggish and half-remembered. The gist of it: Dave is alive, and he’s going to be okay. They won’t let Klaus in to see him yet but that’s alright, because the most important thing is <em> Dave is alive </em>.</p><p>Klaus visits him in the hospital every day, always with a bouquet of flowers or a treat from Griddy’s. His explanation- <em> you almost died but we got catapulted fifty years into the future which coincidentally is the year I actually came from, and also I have no idea how to get you back- </em> is at first taken by Dave as some kind of postoperative delirium, a reaction to the fancy painkillers they’ve got up in this high-tech hospital. It isn’t until he’s discharged and encounters the rest of the world for the first time that he realizes what’s happening.</p><p>Diego volunteers to give them a ride home from the hospital. He doesn’t say much aside from exchanging a few pleasantries. It occurs to him, as they pull into the driveway of the mansion, that this is the first time Klaus has brought anyone home.</p><p>After getting over the initial shock of realizing that yes, he really traveled to 2019, Dave has so many questions, mostly about history. Klaus does his best to answer them, but of course school was never his thing, so he relies on Five and Ben (for whom Klaus translates, another new thing that Dave has to get used to) to fill him in. The siblings all have a blast teaching him everything about “the future.” They start to regret it when he's added to the family group chat and starts spamming them with boomer memes.</p><p>There’s one conversation that Klaus has been dreading. He’s managed to put it off for eight months, but as the holidays approach, he can see Dave becoming more wistful, spending more time alone in the library or strolling through the city at night. Klaus knows his boyfriend has got to be missing his loved ones and everything he left behind in 1968, even though things have been so much easier for them here. And as much as it hurts him, Klaus decides, for the first time, to choose the selfless option.</p><p>They’re sitting on the sofa in the living room, Klaus lying with his head in Dave’s lap and attempting to knit a scarf for the umpteenth time, Dave holding a book in one hand while the other rakes through Klaus’s curls. He’s let his hair grow long and he feels overjoyed when he notices how much his boyfriend adores playing with it. Allison had hung string lights all around the room, and a softly crackling fire adds the perfect complement to create a cozy, romantic atmosphere.</p><p>He feels more at peace than he has in ages, but at the same time, there’s a guilty ache in his ribcage. These moments feel stolen, like he doesn’t deserve to be happy and sober and in love. At least, not with someone like Dave- someone so much kinder and stronger and more wonderful than anyone Klaus has ever met. Dave deserves so much more than this.</p><p>He sets his knitting down and glances up at Dave, who returns his look with a smile. Klaus tries to open his mouth to speak, but the words catch in his throat, so he twists his head to place a tender kiss on the hand playing with his hair.</p><p>“Someone’s feeling cuddly,” Dave chuckles.</p><p>Klaus wants to return with something witty, but the thought of what he’s about to do feels like glass filling his throat and he can’t squeeze the words out. He hides his face in Dave’s belly and nuzzles closer to hide the tears threatening to spill out.</p><p>“Hey now.” Dave gently strokes a hand over Klaus’s cheek and coaxes him out of his hiding spot. His touch is so tender that it <em> hurts </em> and just makes Klaus want to cry even harder. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, avoiding his lover’s eyes.</p><p>Dave isn’t having it, though. He nudges Klaus up until he’s sitting in his lap, arms encircling him in a comforting hug. “If something’s wrong, you can go ahead and tell me, baby. I’m here for you,” he says.</p><p>Klaus stares resolutely at his lap, but as hard as he wishes, the floor doesn’t open up and swallow him. Fine, then. He pushes down the glass shards tearing up his insides and forces the words through his lips.</p><p>“Five found a way for you to go back to the past,” he blurts out.</p><p>The room fills with a silence so heavy Klaus can hear the rushing of his own pulse. He chews on his lip and waits for the inevitable cry of excitement, the rush of joy at finally being able to go back home, back to his family, away from Klaus and all his problems…</p><p>“Are you serious?” Dave whispers. Klaus nods timidly.</p><p>“You can leave tonight, if you want,” he says. “I know you must be excited to see your friends and your parents and everyone. Why don’t I help you pack?”</p><p>He moves to stand, but Dave wraps a hand around his wrist and tugs Klaus back into his lap with a strangled <em> oof </em>. </p><p>“Why do you think I would want to go back there?” Dave asks softly.</p><p>Klaus shrugs. “It’s where you’re from. Your whole world is back there, everyone you love-”</p><p>He cuts off with a gasp as Dave suddenly grabs him in a bone-crushing hug. “No,” he whispers into Klaus’s flyaway curls. “My world is right here.”</p><p>A spark of hope flares to life in Klaus’s heart, but he’s quick to tamp it down. “You can’t just leave everyone behind. Your parents, your friends-”</p><p>“Klaus.”</p><p>He’s uncharacteristically silent as Dave eases out of the hug and turns his boyfriend to look directly into his eyes.</p><p>“My father was a first-generation American,” he says. “His parents immigrated from Germany in the early nineteen hundreds. They needed to leave after they and the other Jews in their town were targeted by German nationalists.” He swallows hard and glances at the fireplace. “My grandparents barely spoke a lick of English, but my grandfather sacrificed everything to fight in the first world war. He saw it as showing his appreciation for a country which had taken him in when he felt like a foreigner in his own home.</p><p>“My father said the same thing when he enlisted in World War II. We were fighting a Germany which had kicked us out for our beliefs, and here in the United States we could make a new home, a home where we were free.”</p><p>Klaus’s heart aches and he places a comforting hand on Dave’s cheek. Dave places his own hand atop it and looks back to Klaus as he continues. “My father sacrificed everything for this country. He built his entire belief system on the idea of a land of opportunity and freedom for all. And you know what happened when the war ended and he finally came home?”</p><p>Klaus shakes his head.</p><p>“Our neighbors burned down our house and told us that we should have perished in the camps with the rest of our kind.”</p><p>The sorrow in Dave’s expression is a deep and impenetrable type of emotion, like a wall of stone, something Klaus will never understand and could never hope to breach. All he can do is stroke his lover’s cheek and hope that the minute gesture can express all of the love threatening to spill out of his heart.</p><p>“I think that’s what broke him,” Dave continues in a strained voice. “He was never the same after the war. We moved to Dallas and did our best to fit in. We put up a tree on Christmas and ran a respectable family business and kept our heads down.” A tear rolls down his cheek.</p><p>“But you-” Dave reaches up to caress Klaus’s face. “Beautiful, wonderful you.” He takes a shaky breath. “When I’m with you, I don’t feel afraid to be myself. The day I met you was the day I finally began to breathe.”</p><p>“Dave,” Klaus whispers, and he’s crying too now, but they’re the happiest tears he’s ever shed.</p><p>“I never want to go back there,” Dave says hoarsely. “I meant what I said, Klaus. You’re my whole world. I don’t want to go anyplace where I can’t be with you.”</p><p>A swell of emotion crashes over Klaus, and he surges up to give his boyfriend a fierce, heart-stopping kiss. He pours every ounce of love that he has into the action and feels it mirrored back to him a thousandfold, filling him with a heady, airy buzz that he quickly realizes is true happiness.</p><p>When they break the news to the rest of the siblings, everyone is overjoyed. They never had any holiday celebrations growing up and are excited to start new ones with the latest family addition. They all do a bunch of secret research and surprise Dave with a clumsy attempt at a traditional Hanukkah celebration. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best holiday Dave has ever had. And, as he reminds Klaus, they will have plenty more years to celebrate it together.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Any feedback, critiques, or requests can be sent to me on Tumblr at humblepirate. Thank you so much for reading and have a happy Hanukkah/joyous Kwanzaa/merry Christmas/blessed Solstice/prosperous new year/wonderful day etc.!</p><p>Fic title is from the English translation of Hava Nagila.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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